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Would love to see more frequent benchmarking of Debian GNU/Linux, especially as Ubuntu diverges further from it, making for interesting comparison.

The stable/wheezy release is of course covered already. So I'd suggest a test system installed with testing/jessie and kept up-to-date with new features going in.

From time to time, specific tests could look at interesting stuff picked from unstable or non-free. Maybe APT pinning makes for an easy way to do that. With some aptitude tricks it is probably easy to undo this and return to a pristine testing/jessie system.

There is full flexibility of desktop environment in Debian, unlike some distros which focus on only one of them. Very easy setup of Xen/KVM allows for testing those vs. bare metal performance on the same installed system. All in all, a very versatile test system, which might only need to be installed once.

Those numbers are worthless and anyone who uses them as a basis for any sort of argument is either ignorant, or intentionally trying to mislead (ie. a liar).

Internet traffic sites, like netapplications and the like, only measure page hits from the pages of their few partner companies who participate in the program. That already gives a very biased sampling, concentrating too much on businesses and too little to home users (and ignoring countries outside Europe/USA pretty much completely). But to top that off, their methodology is flawed, with things like multiple users behind a NAT counted as a single user, and inaccuracies in detecting which OS is used.

Counting methods that identify by browser user agent are extra worthless, as many versions of Mint have the user agent set to report Ubuntu by default - thus resulting in many Mint installations being counted as Ubuntu.

Fact is that there is no reliable way to measure distro popularity. We can get ballpark figures, but nothing accurate.

Please no more Ubuntu.

I know that ubuntu is the most used (30 millions of users) and i don't know which other distro recommend to the noobs. But Ubuntu don't have to be more considered a genuine linux distro. Canonical has broke the rules there must be consequences. Cannot recommend Ubuntu derived (Mint, Xubuntu, etc) because are still ubuntu. Maybe should search for another debian derived, like Linux Mint Debian Edition or something.

You are raising an interesting point. Where does a "genuine" Linux distribution start and where does it end?

Is android-x86 a genuine Linux Distribution? After all it ships Linux and has a "desktop" environment.
Is openelec a genuine Linux Distribution? Altough it does not have a real desktop.
Is Rebecca Black a genuine Linux Distribution? It's the only one shipping Wayland.
Is OpenWRT a genuine Linux Distribution? It does not have a desktop at all.
Are all these rescue systems out there "genuine" Linux distributions?

So what makes a "genuine" Linux Distribution? The desktop environment? The display server?

You are raising an interesting point. Where does a "genuine" Linux distribution start and where does it end?

Is android-x86 a genuine Linux Distribution? After all it ships Linux and has a "desktop" environment.
Is openelec a genuine Linux Distribution? Altough it does not have a real desktop.
Is Rebecca Black a genuine Linux Distribution? It's the only one shipping Wayland.
Is OpenWRT a genuine Linux Distribution? It does not have a desktop at all.
Are all these rescue systems out there "genuine" Linux distributions?

So what makes a "genuine" Linux Distribution? The desktop environment? The display server?

Obviously the kernel is one hard criteria. But the rest?

That's just childish. Which rules are you talking about?

Everone is talking about Linux "shoulds"-"rules"-"preconditions" like its their property. I'm sorry to inform you that LINUS TORVALDS is PROUD of Android and he is using CHROMEBOOK!

Some already stated that Ubuntu and Android don't belong to Linux. Pathetic haters.

I think OpenSUSE is the best choice. It follows the standards agreed upon by almost all non-Ubuntu distros. Systemd, equal focus on KDE and Gnome, planning on Wayland. It has the OBS that function pretty much like Ubuntus PPA.
Personally I use Manjaro Linux at the moment, which a quick and easy way to get Arch up and going. Also a good choice.